“A Higher Sense of Purpose:” Spotlight on the TEL HI Community Hub
By Michael Lee & Josh Feierstein
Our names are Michael Lee, Program Manager at TEL HI, and Josh Feierstein, Director of Programs for TEL HI. We work to oversee our Community Hub for elementary school aged students (K-5) at Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center.
Some of the highlights of the CHI we’ve experienced so far include being able to see and interact with the students in-person where we are able to produce our best work impacting the community. Being able to see the youth grow and have fun with one another has been a blessing this past year, especially considering how far we’ve come to get back into this type of work. Another highlight would be seeing how much our students have enjoyed being in the garden and partaking in gardening activities. The kids love it out there and love learning about the plants, insects, and animals that reside there.
Some challenges we’ve experienced in the CHI so far include working with the younger youth — specifically the kindergarteners — in trying to get them to pay attention in their virtual classes. It has really given us a newfound respect and admiration for the teachers that manage close to 30 kindies at a time! Over time, we have improved in reaching the younger youth to get them to settled in, however we do believe the younger students especially need in-person learning to get the most out of their education. Another challenge that we’ve had — though has given us a higher sense of purpose — has been working with one particular student that has been diagnosed with epilepsy. This was the first time any of our staff have worked with someone with this condition and we were honestly a little scared on how to approach it initially. However, through working with the parent as well as the teachers from the students’ school, we are building a strong relationship with this student and it’s been wonderful to see them flourish in our hub.
We have provided a sense of home, family and connection by trying to be there for our participants and their families in any way we possibly can. Whether that’s lending an ear to our students and families or having multiple toy drives for our students during the holidays, we have always tried to make sure we can provide whatever we can to our families since the pandemic has started.
One example of this we want to highlight is from one of our current students that has been with us since April of 2020. This student has been going through a rough stretch since the pandemic has started, from custody battles to eventually being placed in foster care. Despite this — and a brief transitional period — the student is still attending our hub because both the social worker and the foster parent believes in our program and loves the work and connections we’ve built with the student and the friendships he’s made within our hub. This experience has resonated with me because we got to know the student prior to being placed in foster care and how the process has affected him. Being able to provide him with the support he needs, as well as being able to see him have fun and interact with other kids despite everything has really brought us a lot of joy and a sense of purpose in what we do.
A Day at the Hub
8:30 AM As the youth start rolling in, they are served breakfast and get ready to start their classes.
9:00 AM Our students are hard at work in their classes with our staff supporting them with any technological support they may need. During the students’ breaks, we like to take them outside to either our garden or our playground to get some fresh air and get away them away from the computer screens when possible.
11:30 AM Lunch is served.
12:30 PM After lunch, we typically work on homework with the youth.
1:30 PM Once the students have finished their work for the day, they go down to the gym or playground to run around and play and be kids.
2:00 PM We start our workshops for the day. Recently, we’ve been leading more cooking lessons using greens the youth help grow from our garden.
3:15 PM Our kids start snack and have free time.
4:00 PM We take them back down to the gym/playground to play while they wait to be picked up.
5:00 PM Program ends.
We absolutely see the benefits of the City’s approach to taking the cautious, health-first philosophy in addressing this pandemic. Unfortunately, this has been a tough year for the students we normally work with, including the 70%+ that we used to serve in our after school program and now have little to no contact with. That being said, we feel blessed to be able to make a difference in the lives of the students that are currently enrolled in our hub, whom in many cases, have needs that are much greater due to socioeconomic inequities and are able to serve them over the entirety of a school day. Many of their parents work throughout the days and would otherwise be unable to watch them at home. Given that we are able to focus on the most at-risk and in need youth during a global pandemic, I’d say this makes San Francisco a pretty cool place to work and live.
The City of San Francisco has been very generous in providing our CHI with all the PPE necessary to remain open safely, with the one exception of HEPA grade filters which we purchased from our budget. The main area of support we’d ask for would be in the area of the budget, which was originally created to service an after school program consisting of 4 hours/day, and now we are operating this learning hub which requires us to increase our staffing hours. Due to the longer day and additional needs of our staff to be successful, we have had to get creative in how to effectively staff our hub. We have partnered with other organizations such as Americorps and Playworks who have assisted us in providing staff, but in order to fully maximize the number of students that our hub can safely accommodate, we would still need to bring on more staff and would need the additional financial support to do so.
What song motivates you to continue to serve our communities as we struggle and grind through the pandemic?
Sia, “Alive”— because we are still alive and we can never take that for granted.
To learn more about DCYF’s Community Hub Initiative, visit dcyf.org/care
